I have a background in science research, a field where work you are focused on developing or discovering a novel finding or understanding. It’s exciting when this happens, an amazing feeling when months or years of work on a certain project accumulate to become a novel finding, and something potentially publishable. As soon as this occurs (and it’s worth pointing out, there is never a guarantee it will), your goal becomes to try and publish as soon as possible so as not to get “scooped” by another lab. The concept of another lab many miles away working on the same protein, or even possibly the same exact region of the same protein, may sound impossible, but I’ve seen it happen on more than a few occasions. Hence, it is not abnormal for many to keep their cards close to their chest with regard to recent exciting results coming out the lab, speaking in more general terms about their work. Meanwhile, researcher presentations at International conferences regularly centre on research that has already been completed, with the paper already accepted at a journal, but perhaps the issue would not yet be released. Hence, with no fear of being ‘scooped’ at this point, you can be more open and the conference can provide an ideal avenue to present and potentially build collaborations. You need to earn the trust of another laboratory in order to collaborate, and once this occurs, you can reap the benefits of openly sharing ideas, exchange visits, different viewpoints, access to new equipment and so on. I’ve been fortunate to have been involved in several fruitful international collaborations that all yielded opportunities and outputs, so I have witnessed the benefit of openly sharing in situations like this. When it comes to publishing your work, the aim is often for a journal with as high an ‘impact factor’ as possible. Many of these journals can exist behind paywalls, requiring paid subscriptions, sometimes covered by your institution. I can clearly remember during my postgrad hearing about PLOS, the Public Library of Science initiative, a concept around making science open access to ensure research findings were free to all, available to everyone. It was big news, and gathered a lot of attention. In fact, 34,000 scientists from 180 countries signed the founders’ (Harold Varmus, Patrick Brown and Michael Eisen) open letter back in 2000 about PLOS. In 2003, ‘PLOS Biology’ went on to publish its first article – and it had 500,000 visitors….within a few hours of publishing! It has since grown from strength to strength and added new discipline specific journals and applies a CC-BY attribution license to everything it publishes. In fact, now, it even offers to share aspects of the peer-review process, with author and reviewer permission. In Teaching and Learning, I have become much more aware of openness on many levels. Sharing practice, resources and research openly is important for everyone’s success. There are so many people currently doubling up on efforts, and there is potential to ensure that knowledge is freely accessible and available to all. Even when you think of science research above, it would be great to have your work read by as wide an audience as possible, however the impact factor league table will always play a role here, especially as it may impact future funding opportunities. In T&L, there is a global movement towards ‘open’, but a change in mindsets and practice can take time. In fact many conferences at national and European levels can be focused primarily on open education, with guest speakers from other parts of the world ‘zoom’ing in to inform, guide and support this concept. Since its establishment in 2009, Ireland’s All Ireland Journal of Higher Education (AISHE-J) has always been an open access journal, ensuring that all research, reflections and developments in the space are free to all, immediately following publication. Across Ireland, the National Forum's has prioritised open education. You can read more about this on the National Forum's site linked here with guides, toolkits and webinars available. So from reading this piece, you may have gained an insight to the science world, one that is often guarded to protect discovery and potential intellectual property, and the changes that have occurred around open research publications such as that outlined with PLoS and its many associated journals. Personally, I feel that I’m currently navigating through a more broad transition to open, and as every week passes and I reflect on my meetings, my notes (I’m a notetaker!), conversations and webinars, I am noticing the word ‘open’ has been popping up more and more ovr time. I look forward to developing this open approach more in the coming weeks, be it around open education practice, open education research and open education resources. |
Ronan BreeEducation Developer,Science Lecturer, Archives
March 2023
Categories
All
Any opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer.
|